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Curfew was lifted temporarily in Srinagar for prayers at local mosques as 30 persons including 23 security personnel were injured when mobs pelted stones in two incidents in Nowhatta in the downtown city area and Pulwama district of South Kashmir.

After a high-level meeting here presided over by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, it was decided that the four-day-old curfew restrictions will be eased from 8 P.M. onwards to enable people offer special prayers overnight at the Hazratbal shrine for Shab-e-Mehraj, an important occasion on the religious calendar in the state.

In Nowhatta in downtown Srinagar, seven security personnel and two civilians were injured when a mob pelted stones at the police which resorted to lathicharge and teargas and later fired two rounds in the air to disperse them.

In another incident in Kakapora area of Pulwama district, 21 persons including 16 security personnel were injured when a group hurled stones at a security camp and a police post.

The incidents took place even as the Jammu and Kashmir police cracked down on stone pelters during the night and on Friday as well and arrested nearly two dozen people.

They included Mehraj-ud-din Bhat, Mohammed Ashraf Laya and Yusuf Mujahid -- all activists of Hurriyat Conference faction led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The three were charged with instigating mobs to turn violent.

Announcements were made locally by the police informing people that they can go for Friday prayers. This period passed off peacefully without any trouble in the city.

There were sporadic clashes in Tregham in Kupwara, old Baramulla town and in Dalgate which was brought under control by a mild cane-charging by the police.

The authorities, however, lifted restrictions on the movement of media persons in the wake of curfew in Srinagar and certain other parts of the valley and issued fresh curfew passes to them.

Media persons can perform their official duties, an official spokesman said.

Newspapers failed to hit the stands for the second day today in the Valley in the wake of the restrictions.

The last time the newspapers did not come out was in 2008 at the height of the Amarnath land agitation. Publication of dailies at that time was suspended for four days.

Newspaper publication had also remained suspended for 40 days during elections in 1996.

Army, which had staged flag marches in Srinagar, did not repeat the exercise this morning. The district administration asked the Army to remain on stand by for deployment in case of an emergency.

Congress leaders discuss situation in Kashmir

Top Congress leaders met in Delhi in the wake of the spurt in violence in Kashmir Valley with Home Minister P Chidambaram briefing them about the current situation.

The hour-long meeting of the Congress Core Group chaired by party President Sonia Gandhi discussed the issue in detail as the party had expressed concern over the developments there.

Apart from Gandhi, all other members of the Core Group including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram and political secretary to the Congress President Ahmed Patel attended the meeting, party sources said.

They said Chidamabaram briefed the Congress President and the Prime Minister about the current situation in the state.

Party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan had earlier said that her party was concerned over the situation in the valley and the fact that elements from across the border and separatists were trying to create tension and violence in Kashmir.

Natarajan had said the Centre and the state governments were seized of the matter and were "confident" that they would be able to restore law and order and peace at the earliest.

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